Alastair Theodore White Obituary

27 November 2012

Alastair Theodore White 1941 – 15th November 2012

 Alastair White , the Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for the Banbury Constituency, has died aged 71 after a long battle with cancer.

As a sociologist and socio-economist Alastair worked as a consultant with aid organisations such as the European Union to repair societies in the aftermath of war, helping rebuild countries and communities in a way which would benefit all.

For over 40 years he helped developing countries with advice on water sanitation, health and rural development, urban poverty and human rights. As an academic he researched and taught on socio-political and economic issues. His first book, “EL Salvadore” which was the first serious all round study of one of the smallest but most densely populated countries in the Americas.

A lifelong socialist and Labour Party member, he became disillusioned by the Blair and Brown governments and became a founder member of the Banbury and Cherwell Green Party and in the 2010 General Election polled nearly double the national average Green Vote..

Born to Hilda, an Art teacher, and Hugh Stanley White, a famous early science fiction cartoonist, Alastair grew up in Esher, Surrey and from the age of 7 lived in Nairobi, Kenya. On returning to England at 15 he studied at Battersea Grammar School and then spent a year teaching English in Santander, Spain where his students included the children of the rich Santander banking family.

He studied languages at Jesus College Cambridge, and gained a Ph.D in Sociology in 1969. He then lectured at Stirling and Sussex universities before beginning his consultancy work and settling in Banbury in 1986 and moving to Kidlington in 2000.

Alastair impressed all who knew him with his extensive knowledge and intellectual rigour – always able to describe the most complicated political situation with incisive analysis.

Alastair is survived by his wife Rita, who he met in El Salvadore and their 2 children, Felicity and Emile; also by his first wife Ljiliana, a Yugoslav, and their 2 children, Greg and Tania, and by a fifth child, Claire and his 3 grandchildren.

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